CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR LOCAL PRODUCTION OF JEKYLL & HYDE
Local theatre company Darlington Operatic Society is proud to announce the full casting of their next blockbuster musical, Jekyll & Hyde.
Directed and choreographed by Joanne Hand (Top Hat, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, West Side Story) alongside Musical Director Steven Hood (Chitty Chity Bang Bang, Strictly Musicals 2), Jekyll & Hyde will run at Darlington Hippodrome later this year.
The title role of Dr Henry Jekyll (who transforms into Mr Edward Hyde) will be shared between Julian Cound and Luke Oldfield who will play the role on alternate dates.
It is widely known that this is possibly one of the toughest musical theatre roles for any male performer to undertake. Beth Hopper will take the role of Emma Carew with Rhiannon Walker and Jessica Harrison sharing the role of Lucy Harris on alternate dates. The cast will also include Christopher McCann as John Utterson, Jason Slater as Sir Danvers Carew, Peter Robson as Simon Stride, Brandon Gatley as Spider & Archibald Proops, Andrew Hamilton as the Bishop of Basingstoke, David Murray as Lord Glossop, Hannah Gawthorpe as Lady Beaconsfield and Alex Taylor-Garthwaite as Lord Savage. The ensemble cast is Edwin Taylor, Scott Campbell, Ben Fitzpatrick, Joshua Ashton, Baily Gascoigne, Caitlin Foster, Fran Charlton-Hague, Lizzie Curwen, Eleanor Grainger, Abbie Hand, Claire Hirst, Zoe Kent, Carolyn Lithgo, Grace Murray, Eve Murray, Naomi Potts, Natalie Robinson, Mehan Smith, Rosalind Stuart, Vicky Tickle, Hayley Walker, Claire Willmer and Hannah Winship.
Director Joanne Hand said “This has been one of the hardest sets of auditions to cast from. There is so much strength in the membership of the society that Steven and I had some very difficult decisions to make. To have eight men auditioning for the role of Jekyll is astounding and testament to the reputation of DarlingtonOS to continually attract talented performers, both male and female.”
Jekyll & Hyde is conceived for the stage by Frank Wildhorn and Steve Cuden, with a book and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and music by Wildhorn. Based on the book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the musical tells the story of a London doctor who creates an alternate personality in an attempt to cure his father’s mental illness. The result is Mr. Hyde, an evil alter ego that causes violence and destruction. Jekyll & Hyde originally opened on Broadway April 28, 1997 at the Plymouth Theatre and earned four Tony Award nominations.
Jekyll & Hyde will run at Darlington Hippodrome from Wednesday 23 October to Saturday 2 November. Thursday 31 October is a BSL Interpreted performance and both Friday performances will be audio described. Tickets are on sale now by calling the Ticket Hotline on 01325 244659 or online at www.darlingtonos.org.uk
Director: Trevor Nunn; Designer: Jon Bausor; Video Designer: Tal Rosner; Lighting Designer: Tim Lutkin; Sound Designer: Gregory Clarke; Choreography: Lynne Page; Musical Supervisor/Director: Tom Murray; Orchestrations: Jason Robert Brown
13 July – 14 September 2019
With Orpheus Descending running at the theatre, and Fiddler on the Roofplaying at the Playhouse Theatre, the Menier Chocolate Factory today announces the full company for the UK première of the musical of Robert James Waller’s bestselling novel The Bridges of Madison County in a new staging by Trevor Nunn. Joining the previously announced Jenna Russell (Francesca) are Ed Baker-Duly (Robert), Georgia Brown (Chiara/Ginny/State Fair Singer), Maddison Bulleyment (Carolyn), Shanay Holmes (Marian), Gillian Kirkpatrick (Marge), Paul F Monaghan (Charlie), David Perkins(Michael) and Dale Rapley (Bud). The production opens on 23 July, with previews from 13 July, and runs until 14 September. Public booking is now open.
Francesca is an Italian immigrant housewife living a happy existence on a farm in the American Midwest. However, when her family go off to the Iowa State Fair, she meets Robert Kincaid, a National Geographic photographer on assignment filming bridges in the area. Their initial friendship develops into a brief but passionate affair which has devastating consequences on all of their lives.
Winner of the Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations, this is some of Jason Robert Brown’smost ravishing and unforgettable music.
The productionsees Trevor Nunn renew his collaboration with the Menier – he previously directed Fiddler on the Roof (currently running at the Playhouse Theatre),Lettice and Lovage, Love in Idleness (also West End), A Little Night Music (also West End and Broadway) and Aspects of Love for the company.
Edward Baker-Duly plays Robert. He previously appeared at the Chocolate Factory in Rookery Nook.His US theatre credits include the Broadway production of The King AndI; and the Off-Broadway production of Peter And The Starcatcher. His West End theatre work includes The King and I,TheWizard Of Oz, Gone With The Wind, South Pacific, West Side Story, Salad Days. UK: Noises Off, Anyone Can Whistle, The Lady Vanishes, Copacabana, The Pirates of Penzance, Singing in the Rain, The Full Monty, Twelfth Night and The Mikado. He most recently appeared in Kiss Me Kate at Sheffield Theatres. For television, his work includes Shades Of Blue, Billions, Elementary, The Blacklist, Royal Pains, Downton Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs, Micro Men, New Tricks and Yes Prime Minister; and for film, Heidi Queen Of The Mountain,DeLovely, Botched, The Circle and Welkome Home.
Georgia Brown plays Chiara/Ginny/State Fair Singer. Her theatre credits include Daddy’s Girl (Three Street Productions – also playwright), Carry on Jaywick (HighTide and tour), Somewhere in England(Eastern Angles), A Chorus of Disapproval (Harold Pinter Theatre) and Harold Pinter – A Celebration(National Theatre); and for film, New Cross: Coming Up 2012.
Maddison Bulleyment plays Carolyn. This is her professional stage debut.
Shanay Holmes plays Marian. Her theatre work includes Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Kilworth House Theatre), The Wizard of Oz (Birmingham Rep), Rent (UK tour), Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Close to You – Bacharach Reimagined (Criterion Theatre), Rent and The Bodyguard (UK tour).
Gillian Kirkpatrick plays Marge. Her theatre work includes Sweeney Todd (Chichester Festival Theatre and Adelphi Theatre), Skellig (Nottingham Playhouse), Spring Awakening (Hope Mill Theatre), The Last Ones (Jermyn Street Theatre), Sunny Afternoon (Harold Pinter Theatre), American Psycho (Almeida Theatre) and Blood Brothers (Phoenix). For television, her work includes Inside Balmoral; and for film, All Roads Lead to Home, Dorcha and Recovery.
Paul F Monaghan plays Charlie. His theatre work includes Man of La Mancha (London Coliseum), La Cage aux Folles (UK tour), Cats the Musical (London Palladium and UK tour), A Man of No Importance (Arts Theatre) and Les Misérables (Palace Theatre and UK tour). His film work includes Mary Queen of Scots and Rough and Ready.
David Perkins plays Michael. He recently graduated from Mountiview. His theatre credits include Spring Awakening (Transfer Productions), The Rose Tattoo, The Life of Galileo, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Coast of Utopia: Shipwrecked and The Voysey Inheritance (National Theatre); and for film, Laura’s Star.
Dale Rapley plays Bud. His theatre work includes Richard III, Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre), The Addams Family Musical (UK and Ireland tour), Aladdin (Lyric Hammersmith), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Playhouse Theatre) and Wicked (UK tour). For television his work includes Silent Witness; and for film, Au Pair and Paper Mask.
Jenna Russell returns to the Menier to play Francesca – she previously appeared in Merrily We Roll Along (also Harold Pinter Theatre – Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical) and Sunday in the Park With George (Wyndham’s Theatre – Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical; and Studio 54, Roundabout Theater Company – Drama League Award, and Tony Award and Drama Desk nominations for Leading Actress in a Musical). Other theatre work includes Fun Home (Young Vic), Doctor Faustus (Duke of York’s Theatre), Grey Gardens (Southwark Playhouse), Peter Pan the Musical (Royal Festival Hall), Songs for a New World (St James’ Theatre), Di and Viv and Rose(Vaudeville Theatre), Urinetown (St James’ Theatre and Apollo Theatre), Soho Cinders (Soho Theatre), That Day We Sang (MIF), Season’s Greetings (National Theatre), Amy’s View (Garrick Theatre), and Guys and Dolls (Piccadilly Theatre – Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical). For television, her work includes as series regular Michelle Fowler in EastEnders, Call the Midwife, The Ladies Paradise, Better Class of Person and Born and Bred; and for film, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, Mortdecai, Scared Hearts and The Fear.
Marsha Norman is a playwright and screenwriter. Her theatre credits include Master Butcher’s Singing Club; Third and Oak: The Laundromat; ‘night, Mother – Pulitzer Prize Winner for Drama; The Secret Garden – Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical; The Red Shoes; The Color Purple; Getting Out; The Pool Hall; The Holdup; Traveler in the Dark; Sarah and Abraham; Loving Daniel Boone; Trudy Blue and Last Dance. Her television credits include In Treatment. For film ‘night, Mother; Face of a Stranger; A Cooler Climate; Custody of the Heart and The Audrey Hepburn Story.
Jason Robert Brown is a three-time Tony Award winning composer and lyricist. His theatre credits include 13,The Last Five Years – which was also adapted into a film in 2015 starring Anna Kendrick, Parade – which won a Tony Award for Best Score, Honeymoon in Vegas, Songs for a New World and Urban Cowboy – which he co-wrote with Jeff Blumenkrantz.
From 1968 to 1986, Trevor Nunn was the youngest ever Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, directing over thirty productions, including most of the Shakespeare canon, as well as Nicholas Nickleby and Les Misérables. From 1997 to 2003, he was Artistic Director of the National Theatre, where his productions included Troilus and Cressida, Oklahoma!, The Merchant of Venice, Summerfolk, My Fair Lady, A Streetcar Named Desire, Anything Goes and Love’s Labour’s Lost. He has directed the world premières of Tom Stoppard’s plays Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia and Rock n Roll; and of Cats, Sunset Boulevard, Starlight Express and Aspects of Love by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Other theatre includes Timon of Athens, Skellig (Young Vic); The Lady From The Sea (Almeida Theatre); Hamlet, Richard II, Inherit the Wind (The Old Vic), A Little Night Music(Menier Chocolate Factory, West End and Broadway), Cyrano de Bergerac, Kiss Me Kate (Chichester Festival Theatre); Heartbreak House, Flare Path, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Tempest (Theatre Royal, Haymarket); Scenes from a Marriage (Coventry & St James), All That Fall (Jermyn Street & New York); A Chorus of Disapproval and Relative Values (West End). Work for television includes Antony and Cleopatra, The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, Three Sisters, Othello, The Merchant of Venice and King Lear, and on film, Hedda, Lady Jane and Twelfth Night.
This production is produced in association Michael Harrison and David Ian.
Listings Information The Bridges of Madison County
Venue: Menier Chocolate Factory
Address: 53 Southwark Street, London, SE1 1RU
Dates: 13 July – 14 September 2019
Times: For the performance schedule, please see the website
Box Office: 020 7378 1713 (£2.50 transaction fee per booking)
Directed by Corey Campbell (Artistic Director of Strictly Arts Theatre Company) and Pilot Theatre’s Artistic Director Esther Richardson (Noughts & Crosses and Brighton Rock), the new adaptation will premiere at the Belgrade Theatre Coventry from 8-22 February 2020 and will then embark on a national tour until May.
Life isn’t easy on the Crongton Estate but when the magnificent six set out to help a friend in trouble, much larger problems come their way.
Although, with the help of a few good friends nothing is impossible, and lessons learned the hard way are ones you’ll never forget. That’s when a crew becomes a family.
Crongton Knights will be the second of four co-productions between Pilot Theatre, Derby Theatre, Belgrade Theatre Coventry and York Theatre Royal who last year formed – with the Mercury Theatre Colchester – a new partnership to develop theatre for younger audiences. From 2019-2022 the consortium will commission and co-produce an original mid-scale production each year. Each production will play in all the consortium venues as well as touring nationally. The consortium’s first production, Noughts & Crosses, was seen by over 30,000 people on tour with 40 % of the audience being aged under 20.
Born in London to Jamaican parents, Alex Wheatle’s first book, Brixton Rock (1999), told the story of a 16-year old boy of mixed race, in 1980s Brixton. The novel was subsequently adapted for the stage and performed at the Young Vic in 2010. Its sequel, Brenton Brown, was published in 2011.
His other novels include East of Acre Lane (2001), which won a London Arts Board New Writers Award. A prequel, Island Songs, set in Jamaica, was published in 2005, and a sequel, Dirty South, in 2008. In 2010, he wrote and toured the one-man autobiographical performance, Uprising. His play, Shame & Scandal, had its debut at the Albany Theatre, Deptford in October 2015. He was awarded an MBE for services to literature in 2008.
Alex said about the new stage adaptation ofCrongton Knights:
“I am very proud that Pilot Theatre are adapting my novel, Crongton Knights, for the stage.
It’s a modern quest story where on their journey, the young diverse lead characters have to confront debt, poverty, blackmail, loss, fear, the trauma of a flight from a foreign land and the omnipresent threat of gangland violence.
The dialogue I created for this award-winning novel deserves a platform and I for one can’t wait to see the characters that have lived in my head for a number of years, leap out of my mind and onto a stage near you.”
Emteaz Hussain is a playwright and performance poet. Her acclaimed first play, Sweet Cider, was produced by Tamasha Theatre Company at the Arcola Theatre in 2008 and was published in 2013 in the anthology Plays for Today by Women by Aurora Metro Books. Her other theatre credits include Blood (Tamasha Theatre Company – tour), Outsiders (Pilot Theatre – tour). Emteaz is currently under commission by the Royal Court Theatre to write a play about the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, titled Trace. As a performance poet she has performed nationally and internationally and has toured with Transglobal Underground, Fundamental, Hustlers HC and as a backing poet with the Benjamin Zephaniah band.
On adapting Crongton Knights, Emteaz said:
“On my first reading of Crongton Knights, I immediately recognised the intricate, multicultural, working class world that Alex Wheatle had vividly created. The unflinching brutality tempered by bighearted grace and the dignity afforded to the characters that I related to. I loved how these disparate young people struggled to bond in order to overcome such insurmountable obstacles in their young lives, and I jumped at the chance to adapt this for stage.”
The cast and creative team will be announced later in the year.
Schools workshops and outreach projects, along with free digital learning resources, will be available alongside the national tour.
Crongton Knights will open at Belgrade Theatre Coventry from 8-22 February 2020 and will then tour to York Theatre Royal (25-29 February), The Lowry Salford (10-14 March) and Derby Theatre (17-21 March). Other tour dates will be announced later in the year.
RUNNING AT THE OTHER PALACE FOR A STRICTLY LIMITED SEASON FROM 30 AUGUST – 23 NOVEMBER
LOVE CAN TELL A MILLION STORIES
Natasha J Barnes (Cordelia), Daniel Boys (Marvin), Matt Cardle (Mendel), Gemma Knight-Jones (Charlotte), Laura Pitt-Pulford (Trina) and Oliver Savile (Whizzer) will star in the eagerly awaited European premiere of the multi award-winning musical, Falsettos.
The musical, by William Finn (Music, Lyrics & Book) and James Lapine (Book), opens at The Other Palace from 30 August – 23 November for a strictly limited season.
Falsettos is directed and choreographed by Tara Overfield-Wilkinson, with designs by PJ McEvoy, lighting by Nic Farman, sound by Chris Whybrow, musical direction by Richard John, musical supervision by Mark Crossland and is produced by Selladoor Worldwide. Further casting to be announced in due course.
The double Tony Award-Winning Falsettos is a hilarious and poignant look at a modern family revolving around the life of a gay man Marvin, his wife, his lover, his soon to be bar mitzvahed son, their psychiatrist, and the lesbian neighbours.
Originally created under the spectre of the AIDS crisis, this groundbreaking musical about family dynamics manages to remain buoyant and satirically perceptive even as it moves towards its heartbreaking conclusion.
Natasha J Barnes’ (Cordelia) stage credits include The Twilight Zone at the Ambassadors Theatre,Wasted at Southwark Playhouse,Tryst at Tabard Theatre,Funny Girl at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Savoy Theatre and UK Tour, Cinderella at the London Palladium, American Idiot at the Arts Theatre,The Boy Who Fell Into A Book at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Chess at the Union Theatre, Snow Whiteat the Old Vic, Come Dancing at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, Lend Me A Tenor at the Geilgud Theatre, I was Looking At The Ceiling… at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, and Spring Awakening at the Novello Theatre and Lyric Hammersmith. Natasha’s screen credits include Doctors (BBC) and Doc Martin (ITV).
Daniel Boys’ (Marvin) West End stage credits include The Boys in the Band at Park Theatre, on UK Tour and Vaudeville Theatre, Miss Atomic Bomb at The Other Palace, Spoonful of Sherman at Live At Zedel, Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris at Charing Cross Theatre, Spamalot at the Playhouse Theatre, Tommy in Concert at the Prince Edward Theatre, Avenue Q at the Gielgud Theatre and Noel Coward Theatre (Winner of the 2009 Theatregoers Choice Award for Best Takeover in a Role), I Love You Because at the Landor Theatre, Grease at the Victoria Palace Theatre, Rent at the Prince of Wales Theatre and on UK Tour, Sweeney Todd at the Royal Festival Hall and Ordinary Daysand Wolfboy, both at Trafalgar Studios. Daniel’s other stage credits include Nativity! The Musical at Birmingham Rep and on UK Tour, Little Shop of Horrors at Theatre Clwyd, Love Story at Bolton Octagon, The Opinion Makers at Mercury Theatre, Colchester and Derby Playhouse, High Society on UK Tour, The Importance of Being Earnest at the Theatre Royal Windsor, Peter Pan The Musical at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton and Grand Canal Theatre, Dublin, 40th Anniversary concert ofGodspell at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, Rent on European Tour, Sunset Boulevard on UK Tour,West Side Story on European Tour and The War Of The Worlds on UK Tour. Daniel’s screen credits include Endeavour (ITV), Nativity Rocks! (Mirrorball Films), Holby City (BBC Television), Fall Out(Crowded Pictures), and Little Man (Peccadillo Pictures). Daniel was also a contestant on Any Dream Will Do – The Search For Joseph (BBC1).
Matt Cardle (Mendel) is currently starring in Jesus Christ Superstar at The Barbican. His other stage credits include Memphis at the Shaftesbury Theatre (Winner of the What’s On Stage Award for Best West End Debut), and Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom at the Piccadilly Theatre. Matt is a multi-platinum selling recording artist who has sold over 2.2 million records since winning The X Factor’s highest-rating series ever in 2010. Matt stunned over 19 million viewers with his breathtaking four-octave vocal range. Matt’s debut single, ’When We Collide’, sold over one million copies and was recently named as one of the biggest-selling singles of the past decade. The song spent three weeks at #1 and was nominated for Best British Single at the 2011 BRIT Awards. This was followed by the #6 Gary Barlow-penned ‘Run For Your Life’ and the infectious duet ‘Loving You’ with Spice Girl Melanie C. Matt has released four studio albums; ‘Letters’ (2011), ‘The Fire’ (2012), ‘Porcelain’ (2013) and ‘Time To Be Alive’ (2018). In September 2013, Matt performed ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ in Bali at Miss World in front of an audience of over two billion. Matt’s performance of this song was voted the third best moment in the history of The X Factor, viewed over 60 million times on YouTube. Matt has spent the last three summers performing as guest vocalist with The Trevor Horn Band. Resigned to Sony Music, Matt’s most recent album ‘Time To Be Alive’ is a collection of 14 songs that showcase his new found maturity as a singer, songwriter and musician. The lyrics are deeply personal observations on addiction, redemption, atonement and eventual contentment; fusing electronica, gospel, rock and soul.
Gemma Knight-Jones’ (Charlotte) stage credits include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time at the Piccadilly Theatre and Gielgud Theatre, The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre, Sister Act on UK Tour, Hairspray on UK Tour, Been So Long at the Young Vic and on UK Tour, Rent at the Broadway Theatre, and Ragtime at the Kenneth More Theatre. Gemma’s screen credits include Been So Long(Film Four/Greenacre Productions), Behind Every Great Day (Dreams Beds Commercial), Johnson and Johnson Baby Global (Commercial).
Laura Pitt-Pulford’s (Trina) stage credits include Little Miss Sunshine at the Arcola Theatre, Flowers For Mrs Harris at Chichester Festival Theatre, The Gronholm Method and Barnum, both at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Nell Gwynn on UK Tour, Platinum at Hampstead Theatre, Side Show at Southwark Playhouse, Flowers For Mrs Harris at Sheffield Crucible, Oliver! at Leicester Curve, The Smallest Show On Earth on UK Tour, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre (2016 Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical), Follies in Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, A Little Night Music in Concert at the Palace Theatre, The Sound of Music at Leicester Curve, The Return Of The Soldier at Jermyn Street Theatre, Marry Me A Little at St. James Theatre, The Light Princess at the National Theatre, A Man Of No Importance at Salisbury Playhouse, Mack & Mabel at Southwark Playhouse, Sweet Charity at Belfast MAC, The Little Prince at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, Parade at Southwark Playhouse, Guys & Dolls at Theatre Clwyd, Wolsey Theatre Ipswich and Salisbury Playhouse, Copacabana at the Watermill Theatre, The World Goes Round at Wellingborough Castle, Little Fish at Finborough Theatre, Sunset Boulevard at the Comedy Theatre and the Watermill Theatre,The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Follies at the Royal and Derngate Theatre, Northampton, and Edward II at the Edinburgh Festival. Laura’s screen credits includeFree Rein (Netflix), Doctors (BBC), and Father Brown (BBC).
Oliver Savile’s (Whizzer) stage credits include Last Ship in Toronto, Canada, Company at the Aberdeen Arts Centre, Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, Knights Of The Rose at the Arts Theatre, The Navigator at the Phoenix Theatre, London Musical Theatre Orchestra’s State Fair at Cadogan Hall,Phantom Of The Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Cats on UK Tour, Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre, Monkee Business on UK Tour, Mamma Mia! on International Tour, Sleeping Beauty at the Theatre Royal Wakefield, and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on UK Tour. Oliver’s screen credits include Les Misérables (ITV Oliviers 2014) and Cats (ITV Oliviers 2013).
Tara Overfield-Wilkinson’s (Director/Choreographer) credits include Come From Away at the Phoenix Theatre (Associate Director/Choreographer), Motown The Musical at the Shaftesbury Theatre and UK Tour (Associate Director), The Producers on China Tour (Director), Little Shop Of Horrors on UK Tour (Director), Memphis The Musical at the Shaftesbury Theatre (Associate Director), Sister Act on UK Tour (Associate Director), 9 to 5 on UK Tour (Resident Director), Hair in the West End (Resident Director),Sunday in the Park with George at the Menier Chocolate Factory, West End and Broadway (Associate Director/Choreographer), Hairspray in the West End (Assistant Choreographer), High School Musicaland High School Musical 2 on UK Tour and West End (Associate Director/Choreographer), Cats on Channel Islands Tour (Choreographer/Director), Grease on Scandinavian Tour (Assistant Director), Tick Tick…Boom! at the Menier Chocolate Factory and Los Angeles (Assistant Choreographer), Adrift in Macao in Philadelphia and Off Broadway (Choreographer/Resident Director), The Full Monty on UK Tour (Choreographer/Resident Director), Peter Pan and Cinderella in Poole (Director) and Miss Saigon,Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Who’s Tommy and Sister Act, all at theDouglas Choral Union, Isle of Man (Director/Choreographer).
William Finn (Music, Lyrics & Book) is the writer and composer of Falsettos, for which he received two Tony Awards, Best Book of a Musical (with James Lapine) and Best Original Score. He has also written and composed In Trousers, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland (Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, two Los Angeles Drama Critic’s Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, the Lucille Lortel Award, and Guggenheim Fellowship in Musical Composition). Mr. Finn wrote the lyrics to Graciela Daniele’sTango Apasionado (music by the great Astor Piazzolla) and, with Michael Starobin, the music to Lapine’s version of The Winter’s Tale. His musical, Romance in Hard Times, was presented at the Public Theater. Recently, he wrote Painting You for Love’s Fire, a piece commissioned and performed bye the Acting Company, based on Shakespeare’s sonnets. For television, Mr. Finn provided the music and lyrics for the Ace Award-winning HBO cartoon Ira Sleeps Over, Tom Thumb and Thumbelina,Pokey Little Puppy’s First Christmas, and, with Ellen Fitzhugh, two Brave little Toaster cartoons. Mr. Finn has written for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and The New Yorker. A graduate of Williams College where he was awarded the Hutchinson Fellowship for Musical Composition, Finn now teaches a weekly master class at the NYU Tisch Graduate Program in Musical Theatre Writing. His most recent projects include Elegies, A Song Cycle (Lincoln Center) and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which ran on Broadway and has been produced nationally and internationally, and the musical adaptation of the film Little Miss Sunshine which opened at Second Stage Theatre in October 2013.
James Lapine (Book) has written the book for and directed Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday In The Park With George, Into The Woods and Passion, as well as the recent Broadway show,Sondheim On Sondheim. He also directed the first revival of Merrily We Roll Along at LaJolla Playhouse in 1985. With William Finn he has collaborated on March Of The Falsettos andFalsettoland, later presented on Broadway as Falsettos and recently revived in 2016, A New Brain, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Little Miss Sunshine. James’ other Broadway credits include The Diary Of Anne Frank, Golden Child, and Amour. He has written the plays Table Settings, Twelve Dreams, Luck, Pluck & Virtue, The Moment When, Fran’s Bedand Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing. He has been nominated for twelve Tony Awards, winning on three occasions and has received five Drama Desk Awards and the Pulitzer Prize.
LISTINGS
FALSETTOS – THE MUSICAL
By William Finn (Book/Lyrics) & James Lapine (Book)
Directed & Choreographed by Tara Overfield-Wilkinson
RACHEL EDWARDS AND FAWN JAMES ANNOUNCE OPENING PLANS FOR THE BRAND NEW BOULEVARD THEATRE
THE BOULEVARD OPENS ITS DOORS WITH THE LONDON PREMIERE OF GHOST QUARTET BY DAVE MALLOY, WRITER OF BROADWAY HIT NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812, RUNNING FROM 24 OCTOBER TO 4 JANUARY
DIRECTOR BILL BUCKHURST REUNITES THE CREATIVE TEAM BEHIND SELL-OUT SHOW SWEENEY TODD (TOOTING, WEST END, NEW YORK).
A VIBRANT PROGRAMME OF LATES AND SUNDAY PERFORMANCES WILL RUN ALONGSIDE INCLUDING:
THE WEST END’S NEWEST FEMALE-LED IMPROV NIGHT CURATED BY JULIE CLARE WITH GUEST PERFORMERS INCLUDING PIPPA EVANS AND CARIAD LLOYD
AWARD-WINNING COMICS KIRI PRITCHARD-MCLEAN AND NINA CONTI PRESENT THE BEST IN ESTABLISHED AND EMERGING COMEDY TALENT IN NEW MIXED BILL SHOW
WEEKLY JAZZ PERFORMANCES CURATED BY THE COPASETIC FOUNDATION WITH PERFORMERS INCLUDING DAVID MCALMONT, TONY KOFI, CHINA MOSES, JO HARROP, VIMALA ROWE AND ANNA ROSS
STRIPPED-BACK SHOW TUNES WITH WEST END PERFORMERS NATHANIEL MORRISON, FRA FEE, SABRINA ALOUECHE, NATASHA BARNES AND CLAUDIA KARIUKI, CURATED BY NADIM NAAMAN
THE BLACK CAT CABARET AND BOULEVARD THEATRE PRESENT A MOONLIT COCKTAIL OF LATE-NIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
SUNDAY CLASSICAL MUSIC CONCERTS CURATED BY KATY HAMILTON AND BENJAMIN COX WITH MUSICIANS INCLUDING KADIALY KOUYATE, IYATRAQUARTET, THE HERMES EXPERIMENT AND THE LONDON KLEZMER QUARTET
SUNDAY POETRY CURATED BY LIVE CANON WITH WRITERS INCLUDING INUA ELLAMS, MONA ARSHI AND RICHARD SCOTT
PRIORITY BOOKING OPENS ON 19 JUNE AT 10.30AM WITH GENERAL ON-SALE FROM 20 JUNE
£12 TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR ALL PERFORMANCES
PLUS GREG HILLIER IS ANNOUNCED AS HEAD CHEF OF THE NEW BOULEVARD RESTAURANT
Director of Soho Estates Fawn James and Artistic Director Rachel Edwards together announce the opening programme for the Boulevard as the newly-reimagined venue opens its doors to the public for the first time in October 2019. The first show will be the London premiere of Dave Malloy’s celebrated song cycle Ghost Quartet brought to life by the team behind the recent hit production of Sweeney Todd which won great acclaim in London and New York. Ghost Quartet will run alongside a packed roster of late-night and Sunday performances of cabaret, improv, jazz, comedy, classical music and poetry. The Boulevard Theatre’s 2020 season will be announced in September.
London’s newest theatre is located in the heart of Soho in Walker’s Court. The venue is situated in the exact location where Fawn James’ grandfather Paul Raymond opened the original Boulevard Theatre which famously became home to Peter Richardson’s Comic Strip. Architects SODA studio,in collaboration with theatre specialists Charcoalblue, have designed an innovative new flexible space which features Europe’s most advanced revolving theatre and a two-floor glass bridge leading to a restaurant and bar area. For more information on the building please see press pack attached.
THE PROGRAMME
GHOST QUARTET – LONDON PREMIERE Thursday 24 October 2019 – Saturday 4 January 2020 Press night: Thursday 31 October 2019 Music, Lyrics and Text by Dave Malloy Directed by Bill Buckhurst
The Boulevard Theatre opens with the London premiere of Ghost Quartet by the three-time Tony Award-nominated writer of Broadway smash-hit Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Dave Malloy. Bill Buckhurst directs and reunites the creative team behind his sell-out production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, which transferred from a pie shop in Tooting, to the West End, and eventually to a sell-out New York run becoming the longest running production of Sweeney Toddin history.
Ghost Quartet will be directed by Bill Buckhurst with musical direction by Benjamin Cox, design by Simon Kenny, movement direction by Georgina Lamb, lighting by Emma Chapman, sound by David Gregory and casting by Will Burton CDG.
Rose has a problem. She’s been betrayed by her lover, a local tree-dwelling astronomer, with her very own sister. Rose seeks vengeance and a passing bear might just offer the answer. But his services come at a price: a pot of honey, one piece of stardust, a secret baptism – and a photo of a ghost.
A kaleidoscopic journey spanning continents, centuries and the cosmos ensues. But even through the fogs of time and a haze of whiskey, Rose can’t shake the feeling that she’s done this all before…
Ghost Quartet is an intoxicating musical of love, loss and spirits – of both the spectral and alcoholic kind. Wildly inventive, Malloy’s piece draws inspiration from a rich tapestry of work from Arabian Nights and Edgar Allan Poe to Grimms’ fairy tales and Stephen Sondheim, woven together by gospel, honky-tonk, folk ballads, electro-pop and jazz. This hauntingly beautiful song cycle is a story about stories themselves; how we tell them, how we hear them, and how they evolve, intertwine and draw us in.
Dave Malloy is a composer, writer, performer and orchestrator. His shows include Octet, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (12 Tony nominations, including Best Musical, Score, Book, and Orchestrations), Ghost Quartet, Preludes, Black Wizard/Blue Wizard, Three Pianos, All Hands, Beardo, Beowulf – A Thousand Years of Baggage, The Sewers, Sandwich, Clown Bible and (The 99-cent) Miss Saigon. He is the winner of two Obie Awards, a Smithsonian Ingenuity Award, a Theater World Award, the Richard Rodgers Award, an ASCAP New Horizons Award, and a Jonathan Larson Grant. Future projects include an adaptation of Moby-Dick.
Bill Buckhurst’s theatre credits include Sweeney Todd (at Harrington’s Pie and Mash Shop, West End and Off-Broadway) which won Best Musical at the Off-West End Awards, Outstanding Revival of a Musical at the Lucille Lortel Awards, Best Musical Revival Off-Broadway Alliance and Best Off-Broadway Musical at the Theater Fans’ Choice Awards. Bill was also nominated for Outstanding Director of a Musical at the Drama Desk Awards. Other productions include Barbarians, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tinderbox (all Tooting Arts Club) Twelfth Night, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe), Omeros,Hamlet and King Lear (Shakespeare Globe / International Tour), Sweet Charity (Nottingham Playhouse), Much Ado About Nothing (Storyhouse Chester), The Selfish Giant (West End and Northampton Theatre Royal) and Babette’s Feast (The Print Room). His film credits include Pond Life (Open Palm Films), King Lear, Richard II and The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare’s Globe “Complete Walk”).
LATES PROGRAMME
The Boulevard Theatre is delighted to announce a lively late-night offering of music, comedy and cabaret running from Wednesday – Saturday straight after the theatre show.
SOHO SOUNDS: JAZZ Wednesday night weekly from 6 November – 18 December Soho Sounds is the Boulevard Theatre’s new music night, showcasing the best UK and international performers in the theatre’s intimate and stylish setting. For the first season, the Boulevard Theatre will recreate the swinging spirit of bohemian Soho with a jazz night curated in collaboration with composer, pianist and arranger Alex Webb of The Copasetic Foundation. Known for his work with vocalists, Webb’s music has been performed widely. As creator and producer his shows includeStrayhorn the Songwriter, Charlie Parker on Dial, Fever: Jo Harrop sings Peggy Lee and Cafe Society Swing which enjoyed theatre runs in London and New York. Each week for Soho Sounds, a different prestigious guest singer will join the house band led by Alex Webb on piano, Andy Champion on double bass and Pete Hill on drums.
Confirmed performers include David McAlmont (“Yes”, McAlmont and Butler, The Glare with Michael Nyman, Set One: You Go To My Head), American singer China Moses (This Ones for Dinah,Crazy Blues and Nightingales), saxophonist Tony Kofi (Point Blank and For the Love of Ornette with Jamaaladeen Tacuma), Jo Harrop (guested on Call Me Lucky and backing vocalist for Neil Diamond, LeAnn Rimes and Enrique Iglesias), Vimala Rowe (Out Of The Sky with legendary guitarist John Etheridge and recently co-composed “Martinete” with Flamenco giant Paco Peña) and singer-songwriter Anna Ross (First Day and backing vocalist for Duran Duran, Lisa Stansfield, Stereophonics, Tom Jones, Sting and Tina Turner).
FINALE Thursday night weekly from 7 November – 2 January After the curtains have fallen in theatres across the West End, the Boulevard Theatre’s Finale is just beginning. Curated in collaboration with Nadim Naaman (best known for his performances inPhantom of the Opera, West End and Sweeney Todd, Tooting/ West End) each week a different star of the stage will take to the mic to share their favourite songs and stories. The Boulevard Theatre’s intimate cabaret space is the perfect place to hear showtunes in a stripped-back style that lets the vocals shine.
Confirmed artists include Fra Fee (The Ferryman, West End/Broadway and Les Misérables, West End/film), Nathaniel Morrison (currently appearing in Waitress, with other West End credits including Dancing In The Streets, Porgy and Bess, Sister Act and Hairspray), Sabrina Aloueche(We Will Rock You and Les Misérables, West End) and Claudia Kariuki (School of Rock, West End).
LATE NIGHT SCENE Friday night alternate weeks from 8 November – 20 December British Comedy Award winner and BAFTA nominee Nina Conti will host the inaugural Late Night Scene, a gleefully unruly after hours mixed-bill show curated in collaboration with Simon Pearce(The Invisible Dot). Nina’s television credits include Live at the Apollo (for which she won the British Comedy Award), QI, Russell Howard’s Good News, Sunday Night at the Palladium, The John Bishop Show and Family Tree and on radio Clare and the Community (BBC Radio 4). She received a BAFTA nomination and won a Grierson Award for her directorial debut Her Master’s Voice.
Award-winning performer Kiri Pritchard-McLean will then take up the baton, presenting the boldest and funniest comics in town throughout the autumn. Winner of the Best Compere and Best Club Comedian at the Chortle Awards 2018, and as seen on Frankie Boyle’s New World Order andRussell Howard’s Good News, rising star Kiri will introduce an exceptional line up of established comedy titans and fresh-faced emerging upstarts from the worlds of stand up, sketch, and character comedy.
THE YES QUEENS Friday night alternate weeks from 1 November – 3 January The Boulevard Theatre is proud to announce Soho’s newest female-led comedy improv night curatedby Julie Clare (whose work as a producer includes In the Heights, King’s Cross Theatre; Sideshow, Southwark Playhouse and Chinglish, Park Theatre). Each week a different line-up of queens will grab the sceptre and hilariously hold court for an evening of spontaneous scenes, sketches and games created on the spot with suggestions from the audience.
Special guests confirmed so far include comic Pippa Evans, a core member of the award-winning improv team behind Showstopper! The Improvised Musical. Pippa has made guest appearances on BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show and Comedy Central’s Drunk History. Also confirmed is Cariad Lloydwhose TV credits include BBC One’s This Time with Alan Partridge, and Channel 4’s Peep Show. Cariad’s podcast Griefcast won three Gold prizes at the British Podcast Awards 2018.
AFTER DARK Saturday night weekly from 2 November – 4 January The Black Cat Cabaret and Boulevard Theatre present After Dark; a moonlit cocktail of late-night entertainment. Soho’s latest, greatest late-night cabaret is a bewitching cocktail of musical incantations, comedy and dazzling circus spectacle. Visiting luminaries from across the international scene will be expertly assembled by resident compère and chansonnière Dusty Limits (director of Black Cat Cabaret, whose solo shows include Mandrogyny and Psycho).
Black Cat Cabaret is renowned for bringing together an exceptional line up of the very best contemporary cabaret. Originally inspired by the absinthe-soaked heyday of Montmartre’s underworld their show Salon Des Artistes won Best Production at the London Cabaret Awards 2014. Past venues have included Café de Paris, Grand Hall, Hotel Café Royal, Underbelly Festival Southbank and Crazy Coqs Live At Zédel where they enjoyed an ongoing sell out run.
SUNDAY SERVICE
Sundays at the Boulevard Theatre will feature an inspiring programme of live podcasts, eclectic and imaginative classical music concerts and the very best in spoken word talent.
SUNDAY SERVICE: PODCASTS Weekly at from 3 November – 5 January at 11am Kick off your Sunday morning the right way as the Boulevard Theatre hosts a different established podcast each week, recorded in front of a live audience. Taking the most interesting and fresh new voices out of headphones and into an auditorium. More details to be announced soon.
SUNDAY SERVICE: CONCERTS Weekly from 3 November – 5 January at 2pm Each Sunday the Boulevard Theatre presents a concert showcasing the most exciting and inventive artists in classical music today. Music researcher, writer and presenter Katy Hamilton co-curates with Musical Director and composer Benjamin Cox (Les Misérables, Showboat and Broken Wings, West End and Sweeney Todd, Tooting/ New York) bringing together ground-breaking artists from different classical styles and musical genres. Whether new to the genre or a seasoned sonata fan, this programme of work will have something for everyone; from Baroque and Romantic to experimental new work and improvisation, all performed in the Boulevard Theatre’s intimate and informal setting.
Performers confirmed so far include boundary breaking iyatraQuartet (who create music for violin, cello, bass clarinet and percussion drawing on backgrounds encompassing classical to experimental and Indian to folk music. In 2019 they won the Kennedy-Kolodziejski Award for their debut albumThis World Alone). Contemporary quartet The Hermes Experiment (made up of harp, clarinet, voice and double bass with awards including Royal Overseas League Mixed Ensemble Competition, Tunnell Trust Award, Park Lane Group Young Artists and Nonclassical’s Battle of the Bands). Kadialy Kouyate (born into the great line of Kouyate Griot in Southern Senegal, Kadialy plays the kora and sings), Kumori Saxophone Quartet (who regularly perform standards of the saxophone repertoire, ranging from classical to jazz and beyond, alongside their own arrangements and transcriptions) and The London Klezmer Quartet (who delve into the celebratory and soulful music of Jewish eastern Europe bringing audiences around the globe echoes of a vanished world).
SUNDAY SERVICE: POETRY From 3 November – 5 January at 4.30pm From ballads to blank verse and sonnets to slam battles, this weekly event will explore how we take poetry from the page and bring it to life through performance and discussion. Curated by leading poetry organisation Live Canon, each week offers a platform to guests from different parts of the verse world to come together and share their work in an exciting and enlightening way.
Confirmed artists include Inua Ellams (whose plays include Barber Shop Chronicles, The Half God of Rainfall and upcoming adaptation Three Sisters. Pamphlets of poetry include Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales, Candy Coated Unicorn and Converse and The Wire-Headed Heathen), Mona Arshi (whose collection of poetry Small Hands won the Forward Prize and Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection in 2015 and whose second collection Dear Big Gods was recently published) and Richard Scott (winner of the Wasafiri New Writing Prize, the Michael Marks Poetry Award 2016 for his pamphlet Wound and the 2017 Poetry London Competition for his poem Crocodile. His first bookSoho was published in 2018).
The Boulevard is delighted to announce Greg Hillier as Head Chef of the new restaurant.
Greg Hillier has previously worked as Head Chef at The Commonwealth Club and The British Academy. In 2017 he opened the National Army Museum for Searcys and has worked under Michelin trained chefs Arnaud Stevens and Killian Lynch at Sixty-One Restaurant and The Gherkin. He started working in restaurants whilst growing up in Australia, gaining inspiration from the amazing chefs he worked for and learning the importance of local, seasonal ingredients. With over 20 years of experience in kitchens, he is proficient in a variety of cuisines and modern cooking techniques.
At the Boulevard, Hillier will create menus that reflect modern eating habits and cater for every food taste. Throughout the season, the offering will vary to reflect the show running in the auditorium. Menus will lean towards health trends and dietary requirements (such as vegan or coeliac) with a large plant-based offering whilst still giving diners the option to indulge. Food will be vibrant, sensory and informal.
The Boulevard’s restaurant will be open from 8am for breakfast, followed by coffee and cake, brunch and lunch. From mid-afternoon the bar will continue to offer fresh culinary snacks while the Kitchen closes to prepare for the pre-theatre and late evening diners. In the evening guests will be able to choose from small grazing plates, or larger mains that allow for a more formal dining experience. Alongside the daily à la carte menu, a pre-theatre fixed price menu will be available for purchase online in addition to a ticket for a show.
BOULEVARD MEMBERSHIP
The Boulevard will be running a membership scheme that aims to foster a diverse community of people seeking to experience something special in a unique corner of London.
Fun, fresh, and fearless; Boulevard membership is about more than just priority booking and theatre ticket offers. From as little as £40 a year, members will receive benefits throughout the venue ranging from dining discounts and private tours, to carefully curated events that provide opportunities for networking, socialising, learning, and creativity.
Whether you’re popping in for a morning coffee and croissant, or to attend a bespoke event, being a Lace, Velvet or Silk member will allow you to engage and make the most of Soho’s newest venue and everything it has to offer.
LISTINGS
GHOST QUARTET Music, Lyrics and Text by Dave Malloy Directed by Bill Buckhurst
Boulevard Theatre 6 Walker’s Court Soho W1F 0BT
First Performance: 24 October 2019 Final Performance: 4 January 2020 Opening Night: 31 October 2019
Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm
CONCERTS Weekly from 3 November – 5 January Sundays at 2pm [/www.boulevardtheatre.co.uk/sunday-service/]https://www.boulevardtheatre.co.uk/sunday-service/
BROOKE MAUCHLINE PRODUCTIONS AND NICOLL ENTERTAINMENT
PRESENT THE LIVE SHOW OF
THE YOUTUBE SENSATION ‘LITTLE BABY BUM’
“LITTLE BABY BUM LIVE”
AT TROUBADOUR WHITE CITY AS PART OF ‘TROUBAKIDS’
FROM 23 JULY TO 3 AUGUST 2019
AND THE ASSEMBLY HALL, EDINBURGH
AS PART OF EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE
FROM 5 TO 18 AUGUST 2019
Brooke Mauchline Productions and Nicoll Entertainment are delighted to present the live show of the YouTube sensation Little Baby Bum. “LITTLE BABY BUM LIVE” plays as part of the TroubaKids Festival at the brand-new Troubadour White City in West London from 23 July to August 2019. “LITTLE BABY BUM LIVE” will also have a season at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 5 to 18 August 2019 at the Assembly Hall, George Aikman Theatre, Edinburgh.
Combining puppetry, live action and animation, audiences are invited to step into the magical and colourful world of “LITTLE BABY BUM LIVE”. Join Mia, Jacus, Twinkle and their Nursery Rhyme friends on their latest adventure.
An online and digital TV sensation, ‘Little Baby Bum’ is available in over 13 languages and is one of YouTube’s most watched channels with over 32 million subscribers on YouTube and over 25 billion views across multiple platforms including YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. The channel has won several awards including the Guinness World record for the most-watched educational video of all time. Additionally, it was acquired in 2018 by Moonbug, a global entertainment company that develops and distributes safe and fun content for children.
LITTLE BABY BUM LIVE is written and directed by Miranda Larson. Her most recent credits include the adaptation of Tom Fletcher’s “Christmasaurus” (Hammersmith Apollo); “The Night Pirates” (Rose Theatre, Kingston); “Cartoon Network Live” (International Tour); “Milkshake Live” (UK Tour).
LITTLE BABY BUM LIVE is designed by Barney George and Timothy Bird, with musical direction from Barrie Bignold, choreography from Matthew Cole, lighting design from Dom Jeffrey and sound design from Julian Butler.
LISTINGS
‘LITTLE BABY BUM LIVE’ is recommended for ages 0 – 5 years.
DAVID WALLIAMS’ BILLIONAIRE BOY AT BLOOMSBURY THEATRE
Birmingham Stage Company presents
David Walliams’
BILLIONAIRE BOY
Adapted and Directed by Neal Foster
Designer: Jackie Trousdale; Lighting Designer: Jason Taylor; Sound Designer: Nick Sagar
Music: Jak Poore
Bloomsbury Theatre
13 December 2019 – 5 January 2020
Press performance: Thursday 19December at 7pm
UK Tour: September 2019 – November 2020
Birmingham Stage Company today announces its new production of Billionaire Boy will run at Bloomsbury Theatre as part of the previously announced UK tour. The production sees the company renew its collaboration with bestselling children’s author David Walliams, following the stage adaptations of Awful Auntie and the Olivier Award nominated Gangsta Granny. Billionaire Boy opens at Bloomsbury Theatre on 13 December and runs until 5 January as part of a UK tour.
Billionaire Boy tells the story of Joe Spud, who is twelve years old and the richest boy in the country. He has his own sports car, two crocodiles as pets and £100,000 a week pocket money. But what Joe doesn’t have is a friend. So he decides to leave his posh school and start at the local comp. But things don’t go as planned for Joe and life becomes a rollercoaster as he tries find what money can’t buy!
David Walliams, saidtoday, “I absolutely loved the BSC’s terrific productions of Gangsta Granny and Awful Auntie so I can’t wait to see their brand-new production of Billionaire Boy! It promises to be a brilliant show!”
Neal Foster added, “We are delighted to be working with David Walliams on his amazing story about a boy searching for friendship in a world where true relationships can be elusive and it’s fantastic to be bringing our third BSC/Walliams production to London for Christmas.”
David Walliams has become one of today’s most influential writers. Since the publication of his first novel, The Boy in the Dress (2008), illustrated by the iconic Sir Quentin Blake, David Walliams has celebrated more than ten years of writing success with global sales exceeding thirty-two million copies, and his books have been translated into fifty-three languages. His titles have spent 138 weeks (non-consecutive) at the top of the children’s charts – more than any other children’s author ever. He closed 2018 as the UK’s biggest-selling author for the second year running. In addition to his fiction, he has worked with Tony Ross on six picture books as well as three bestselling short-story collections, The World’s Worst Children.
Neal Foster is the adapter and director of Billionaire Boy. He is the Actor/Manager of Birmingham Stage Company which since its foundation in 1992 has staged over eighty productions. The company has become one of the world’s leading producers of theatre for children and their families, including Horrible HistoriesLive on Stage for fourteen years in the UK, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia. Foster has written and directed all of the most recent Horrible Histories shows including the Barmy Britain series seen in the West End, across the UK, and abroad – the latest instalment, Barmy Britain 4 returns to the West End this August. In addition, the world première of Tom Gates which he adapted with the author Liz Pichon is currently touring the country through to 2020. Billionaire Boy will be his third David Walliams stage show after Gangsta Granny and Awful Auntie.
Billionaire Boy is suitable for ages 5 +
Twitter: @BillBoy_Live
Facebook: birminghamstage
Billionaire Boy Listings
Bloomsbury Theatre – 15 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AH
Inspired by a plane crash that happened in her own mother’s Brooklyn neighbourhood in 1960, Meghan Kennedy’s family drama looks at the effect such a traumatic event could have on one Italian family. Father Nic (Robert Cavanah), belittled and frustrated at his lack of status in New York, takes his anger out on his wife Luda (Madeleine Worrall) and his three daughters Tina (Moira Goodwin), Vita (Georgia May Foote) and Francesca (Hannah Bristow). The first act ends with the plane crash and is crammed with background for the three sisters and Luda. Unfortunately, it is all very stereotypical and unrelentingly melodramatic, with characters using the loudest voice possible to talk at each other punctuated by mealtimes where Nic gets angry and shouts, accompanying each bitter sentence with a thump on the table. Luda becomes a caricature of the long-suffering Italian mama as the play progresses, and we find out that Tina left school early to work in a factory to help support the family, Vita is in a convent after attacking her father while protecting younger sister Francesca, and Francesca is planning on running away to France with her girlfriend.
As well as the death and destruction that affects the neighbourhood, Nic has an epiphany and a miraculous change of character in the second act, although this doesn’t last long. This is not explained, rather the script concentrates more on insults and grudges when there could be much more communicated to the audience by silence and gestures from the talented cast. Cavanah is most terrifying when he’s not spouting Nic’s hackneyed lines, while Bristow and Goodwin impress with their energetic but nuanced performances. In fact, the entire cast impresses, it’s just that the way the characters are written, they begin to blend into each other in their loud and never-ending misery.
It’s all just a bit too much, the theatrical equivalent of being force-fed 10 courses of pasta. There is an interesting and emotional story here, it’s just buried under layers of cliché, melodrama and onions.
Fat Rascal’s Edinburgh hit loses none of its exuberant silliness at the King’s Head Theatre. The bonkers musical about the transformation of astoundingly average Bryony Buckle into kick-ass feminist superhero Vulvarine is jam packed with slapstick humour and hilarious musical numbers. Robyn Grant’s book and lyrics (with Daniel Foxx) are full of callouts to misogynists and chauvinists, cramming many everyday annoyances like manspreading into the list of injustices that Vulvarine can put right. James Ringer-Beck’s music keeps everything upbeat, and the manic choreography is perfect.
Bryony’s boring live in High Wycombe, where nothing ever happens, consists of a dull job at the tax office, mooning over Orson Bloom and spending evenings with her cat Elton. Bryony and her friend Poppy are puzzled by the disappearance of the female workforce and the tampon tax funds into a mysterious account. As they begin to investigate, a visit to the doctor, an experimental hormone shot and a lightning strike result in Bryony developing superpowers. Bryony dons Lycra and a mask and becomes Vulvarine. Every superhero needs a supervillain to battle against, and Vulvarine has The Mansplainer, whose evil plan to pacify and subjugate womankind involves huge penis-shaped weapons – obviously!
The cast of 5 are all brilliant, with most playing multiple roles and producing regular belly laughs. Allie Munro holds the show together as Vulvarine with almost a jolly hockey sticks vibe. Robin Grant is a scream as The Mansplainer, camping it up in style, but also steals the show operating Elton the cat, creating hysteria as she sings his solo – Licking My Anus. As The Mansplainer’s wife Sonya, Steffan Rizzi ramps up his Welsh accent a treat to great comic effect, while Katie Wells as lovelorn Poppy and Jamie Mawson as Orson Bloom do their best to steal every scene they’re in.
Seriously silly and wonderfully wise, this madcap musical is unmissable.
5***** because that’s the limit but it would be a million if I could!!!!!!!
Richard O’Brien’s cult classic Rocky Horror has beamed into Bristol for a limited time to allow you to do the Time Warp!
This classic sees an extremely talented cast including Kristian Lavercombe as ‘RiffRaff’, a role he has performed over 1400 times, Joanne Clifton and James Darch as our romantic leads Brad and Janet and Duncan James as ‘Frank’n’Furter’ to name a few; each and every member of this cast is extraordinary.
Narrated by Dom Joly, Rocky Horror is full of sex, fun, hilarity and heel offering the chance for the audience to heckle the cast to provide an interactive experience for all. Dom Joly is a perfect narrator, he handles and encourages the audience participation with ease and each night has an ad-lib with the audience when an answer he doesn’t expect is shouted out.
Kristian Lavercombe as RiffRaff is exceptional. His talent and incredible singing is not to be missed in this role and lends a performance that I can never get bored of. His comic timing is spot on and during the Over at the Frankenstein Place he gives the audience a glimpse of why he has been in the production over 1400 times. Lavercombe is an amazing actor, one that uplifts and holds the show to the standard it is through his acting of the highest calibre. He truly is a star and I cannot wait to return to the show to see him perform again. Together with Laura Harrison as his sister ‘Magenta’,this duo is a treat to watch. Their performances are in sync and with the talent that flows through them both, it is a wonder how they do it each night!
Joanne Clifton and James Darch as ‘Janet’ and ‘Brad’ had the perfect mix of romance and vulnerability and with a little hint of humour, we saw a great story unfold. They are both extremely talented and with show off pieces such as Toucha Touch Me and Once in a While we see the extent of their skill, providing a wonderful audience experience.
Duncan James, as ‘Frank’n’Furter’ is superb. He absolutely melted into the role, creating a seamlessly sexy performance to tantalise your tastebuds and is a feast for the eyes and ears. James, with his platformed heels, fitted corset and flowing feather boa, pranced around the stage as if he was at home-it was a joy to see such a passion for the role he was playing and I forgot I was watching him; he really was ‘Frank’! Along with Callum Evans as our eponymous ‘Rocky’, this was quite the combo. Evans was completely fascinating as he backflipped, somersaulted and leapt across the stage with ease, making the majority of the audience weak in the knees, hoping he would pick them up!
This is by far, one of the best shows around at the minute and no amount of Stars could encourage you to go and see it! I have never been so entranced by a production before and with the current cast, this is THE one to watch and one you will remember-for a very long time.
